Last Day To Tell Google To Forget You 238
itwbennett writes "Google's new privacy policy will consolidate all your data at google.com — unless you erase it first. And today is your last day to do it. The change goes into effect tomorrow. Which is why the helpful folks at EFF have posted some simple instructions showing how to delete your web history at Google."
Sign into my what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yes.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes they track you - Or at least try as hard as they can. It also means that you're not really affected by this as the data is not associated with a Google account.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Insightful)
You are not "affected" with them directly tracking you either.
Truth be told, if consider you are "affected" by tracking, you will still be "affected." There are some valid reasons to feel affected, too. Things like personal like sexual preferences or a teenager quietly getting pregnant and performing an abortion, these are things you rather keep to yourself but are not (at least in liberal eyes) wrong. Google may splash to your family by "accident" via targeted advertisement comes to mind, ironically it's even more likely to happen in a household with pure IP tracking (if everyone in the household has their web history turned off.)
In theory it may even sound better to keep the tracking on, but then it "is there", where someone may some day gain access and look at it.
Not everyone has these types of secrets or privacy concerns, but just because you have one does not mean it's invalid or you are a criminal.
Now on a separate note.... is there a way to download the history? I found interesting how far my history goes and would rather download it all than delete it, at least for the time being. I can’t find anywhere an option to download it, other than go page by page downloading the HTML pages... a bit too much for 5 years of history.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Funny)
Things like personal like sexual preferences or a teenager quietly getting pregnant and performing an abortion,
Probably shouldn't shop at target then.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Informative)
If you're not signed in, they store your history for 180 days, but you can opt-out of that without a Google account: http://www.google.com/history/optout [google.com]
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Yeah, but if you opt-out directly you wind up becoming part of Google's Opt-Out Village [youtube.com]
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I didn't know it was possible but Google's been slashdotted. They should have really gotten more hardware to handle the increased unsubscribe load.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:4, Funny)
Why would they want to do that? ;)
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Informative)
... because you haven't enabled Web History for your domain, so there's nothing to erase.
If, for some reason, you want Web History enabled on your domain, you can do it from the domain control panel.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Informative)
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...selectively allow some sites to set permanent cookies, that persist over browser sessions (e.g. your Slashdot login).
B-b-but what if /. becomes *evil* and all the kewl kids find out that I'm not...?
No Google account, but what ELSE have I had? (Score:5, Interesting)
I've read a dozen different articles about this, and I still can't tell: If I have a YouTube account but I've never had a "Google account," does this affect me at all?
One article mentioned "57 services" run by Google, but nobody's listed them. How do I know that I don't have an account at a site (like YouTube) Google owns but doesn't explicitly brand? I'd practically forgotten that YouTube was Google's...
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Interesting)
I must've been paranoid for years
I've had a gmail account since at least 2005 and went to the link in TFA and discovered that I had never turned Web History on in the first place. Happy days. All I gotta do now is log out of gmail on March 1 and jobs done.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Informative)
Me too. I went in to wipe out my history, and even though I have gmail and youtube accounts, there's no web history. Somewhere along the line the people stirring up Google paranoia neglected to mention that almost nobody has this 'web history' thing enabled. If I as a regular Slashdot reading google user was never prompted to set this up, and didn't even know how to get to the page where you set it up, I imagine the affected population's pretty small.
Am I missing something?
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:5, Insightful)
You're lucky. I signed up for a GMail account in 2009 (so I could use Google Docs with some other people on a small project). Used it for two weeks while we were on the project, never logged in since. I hardly ever use any Google apps - I don't use their search, I don't use their Maps, I don't use GMail, blah blah blah.
A few months ago I read about how to check your Google history, went in out of sheer curiosity, total shock at just how much stuff they'd collected on me. Deleted it and told myself I really wasn't paranoid after all.
I don't know how you got away with it, but I can tell you they had a huge amount of info about me, and I somewhat actively avoid Google services. I am generally pretty blase about online tracking and the like - but that one gave me a jolt.
Re:Sign into my what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ever pull back a Slashdot post you made 10 minutes ago in a google search result? I have. Spooky... and disquieting.
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Nobody forces you to accept the Google cookie.
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False.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Sued-Over-Safari-Privacy-Snafu-395296/ [eweek.com]
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nobody forces you to keep it... if you configure your browser to make it go away when you close the browser (and there's even addons for Chrome/Chromium to do that), then the "history" only lasts as long as your browser is open.
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A: Nobody is forcing you to have shit all over your front door.
B: False. Some of the neighborhood kids like to come by and smear shit on my front door as a prank.
A: Nobody forces you to keep it.
B: Ah, very true.
Today is Feb. 29? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Today is Feb. 29? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, many people have trouble adjusting to leap years.
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As an easy way to defeat Google's tracking, I always change the date back one week.
And use your computer.
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I think this was posted a week early ?
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as opposed to the usual week late. Man this place is going downhill.
Re:Today is Feb. 29? (Score:5, Funny)
No. Today is still Feb. 22. (Score:5, Funny)
You obviously haven't read the fine-print in their new agreement. One of the updates is that GoogleCalendar is changing. Months always start on Thursdays from now on. And there will be 14 months per year. Google's moon-base is still working on speeding up the moon's revolution, but it should be ready [out of Beta] by the end of 2012.
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You obviously haven't read the fine-print in their new agreement. One of the updates is that GoogleCalendar is changing. Months always start on Thursdays from now on. And there will be 14 months per year. Google's moon-base is still working on speeding up the moon's revolution, but it should be ready [out of Beta] by the end of 2012.
Oh crap! That was yesterday!
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No, they posted it a week early because they know it often takes several days for it to appear on slashdot.
Of course, slashdot readers will make sure that as many people as possible know about it.
Done. (Score:5, Funny)
Did I say that out loud? Shit sorry.
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Same here, I will be sharing it with some people who I think will find it interesting but might not have done so yet.
Re:Done. (Score:5, Funny)
Ha! Echelon! Didn't you get the memo? The project was renamed about 8 years ago, now it's called Facebook.
Re:Done. (Score:5, Funny)
According to at least one newspaper [youtube.com], Facebook has drastically cut the CIA's domestic intelligence gathering costs.
(The Onion wins again)
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I wonder if using https defeats this.
That said, I don't bother. Most of my searches fall into the category of:
- clueless care newb questions
- obscure linux issues
- guitar related
In principle I think people have a right not to be tracked, to control data about them, and I definitely don't agree with this "nothing to hide" shit.. privacy shouldn't require a reason, it should be a basic right. In practice.. I'm a very boring person with very little to hide and no inherent desire for privacy. I see no way in wh
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clueless car newb questions
Sigh..
Re:Done. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a very boring person with very little to hide and no inherent desire for privacy. I see no way in which I'm personally harmed by the data I know people are collecting.. if I had the option to opt out or opt in, I'd probably still let them collect the data.
The problems start the day you become not boring. You never know when you will become a person of interest. Run for office, start a succesful business, date a girl wtih a pyscho-ex, save a kid's life in some dramatic way, whatever. It may not even be under your control - you might just cross paths with the wrong guy - a wrong place, wrong time sort of thing.
However it happens, if it ever happens, you can be sure that all that boring information will suddenly become extremely interesting to some people, people who will dig through as much of it as they can get their hands on looking for any thing they can possibly use to harm, or at least get leverage on, you or your family. Maybe all your boring details will still be just as boring, but you really can't predict what a motivated person or organization will be able to come up with given years of historical details about you.
Most people never will become a person of interest.
But those who do, will be screwed.
Re:Done. (Score:5, Insightful)
Qu'on me donne six lignes ï½crites de la main du plus honnï½te homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre. -- Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac. If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. It is even more true today than it was in the 17th century, especially when places like Google have way, way more than six lines typed by your hand.
It's awesome to live in a good country :) (Score:5, Interesting)
I love this place. The best part is, even if the most dishonest man were to stand on a building here screaming at the top of his lungs speaking his mind, it wouldn't matter. People here are mature enough to listen to what interests them and intelligent enough to ignore the nonsense for the most part.
Of course your hidden reference to what most people refer to as the current Orwellian state is nicely placed. Of course, I'm not quite sure that we're at the point where the technology is ready for the thought police concept. Maybe the search result police is the next best thing.
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That particular information is not passed to advertisers so it's all good isn't it.
Tried to (Score:3)
Still tracking no doubt... (Score:2)
Still tracking people no doubt, just now the web history is tied to ip address/computer and not to user account.
Less valuable to them because ip addresses arn't typically static.
YouTube (Score:2)
I don't want Google to track me but I do like my YouTube account. So I'm stuck a bit...
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Google can only associate your searches with your account if you're logged in. If you don't want them to remember your searches, don't log in. Log in to use YouTube when you want to, then log out when you're done.
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That's what I always do. I never log into Google itself. But it would be nice if they were two separate things like in the old days.
Re:YouTube (Score:5, Insightful)
Google can only associate your searches with your account if you're logged in. If you don't want them to remember your searches, don't log in. Log in to use YouTube when you want to, then log out when you're done.
I don't think that's true, Google *can* associate your searches with your account whether or not you are logged on. I don't know if they *do* associate searches with your account when you're not logged on, but there's no reason why they couldn't do it if they wanted to.
You'd have to delete all of your Google cookies to prevent this. And even then, it's no sure thing, they could look at your IP address and browser ID to do a pretty good job of correlating your activity with your Google account even without a cookie.
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They can associate searches with your account when you aren't logged on, but they don't know that they were done by you or by anyone who would have access to your account, so doing so would be somewhat pointless.
Even assuming you have a single machine with a static IP, its quite possible that machine has multiple users, and that the people using your browser when you aren't logged in aren't yo
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Because its absolutely and obviously true.
I don't think a cookie that remembers the identity of the last Google Account user that was logged into a browser is a particularly reliable indicator of the identity of the current browser user on a machine that has multiple users.
Obviously, they could associate not-logged-in searches with a Google Account based on all kinds of criteria --
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Google can only associate your searches with your account if you're logged in. If you don't want them to remember your searches, don't log in. Log in to use YouTube when you want to, then log out when you're done.
I run two different browsers. I have Chrome dedicated to email and Opera dedicated to my daily browsing. I believe this separation helps keep things on the level.
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Use two separate browsers. You might even be able to find an extension for Firefox that allows you to sign into Youtube but doesn't have the other tabs be signed in when visiting Google (at least, I think this is possible). Privacy mode I know works like that in Opera ( so I could sign in under a private tab in Youtube and use Google under a normal tab and wouldn't be signed in), not tried it under Firefox.
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You don't need a plugin for that. All tabs operate independently.
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Your IP still stays the same... As, especially at the beginning, most people don't have a Google account, so they track using IP. It might be less reliable than the account or a cookie, but there's no way they'd skip this possibility. Profit on targetted ads/etc against those with cookies off (~10% of all users) is not something to shake a stick at.
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"Paused" web history. (Score:5, Interesting)
Just did that. But I'd done it already, and Google claims my web history is "paused". Which probably means they will "unpause" it silently at some future time.
There's this annoying trend towards invisible buttons for things web sites don't want you to do. There's no obvious "sign out" button for Google now. Clicking on your user name will get you to a sign-out option, but it's not obvious. Facebook actually has invisible buttons for opting out of ads. (They're at the right of the ad headline. Mouse over that blank area and a "x" will appear. Click on the "x" and some opt-out options will appear. They don't actually make the advertiser go away, though.)
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Just did that. But I'd done it already, and Google claims my web history is "paused". Which probably means they will "unpause" it silently at some future time.
you lucky bastard!
mine is stuck, blinking at twelve. HELP!
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This is why you have at least two browsers installed. One is your hardcore locked down browser for when you have to do stuff involving personal information (only have one window open at a time, no cache, and delete cookies on exit, and some form of script blocking installed, preferably also blocking 3rd party frames/images.) Then you have another one with everything except the script blocking in place, used for non-identifiable web browsing (obviously still identifiable, but only for linking browsing habits
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From Google's privacy FAQ [google.com] page, they conveniently dodge the question of what pausing does.
What happens when I pause the service, remove items, or delete the Web History service?
You can choose to stop storing your web activity in Web History either temporarily or permanently, or remove items, as described in Web History Help. If you remove items, they will be removed from the service and will not be used to improve your search experience. As is common practice in the industry, Google also maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users. For example, we use this information to audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.
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Google claims my web history is "paused". Which probably means they will "unpause" it silently at some future time.
Because Google has a long history of silently changing your privacy settings? Just like they quietly updated their privacy policy, without telling anyone?
where is the REMOVE option? (Score:3)
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For older accounts, this was never on in the first place (and thus nothing to remove or pause). Newer account have it opt-out (and thus on by default).
What will happen if you already disabled it? (Score:2)
Do we have any info that you wont be able to disable web history after the change? Or delete it afterwards? That would seriously change my googling habits actually.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:i told them to forget me (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't escape The Google.
View any website with an ad from doubleclick.com? Google knows it, and what site your were visiting at the time.
View any website with a ReCaptcha? Google knows what site you were visiting at the time.
View any website that hotlinked the Google logo?
Site using Google-Analytics or Google APIs?
Now sit back and enjoy your Kool Aid.
Or use Adblock, Noscript, and RequestPolicy to block third party use of Google. But too bad if you actually need to fill out a ReCaptcha to register or post somewhere, or use a website that depends on Google APIs.
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> You can't escape The Google.
Huh, you DO know about to block most of that crap, right??
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm [mvps.org]
or
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ [someonewhocares.org]
doubleclick.com? BLOCKED.
Google-Analytics? BLOCKED.
Problem solved.
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What do you use for web based email?
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Cee-Lo Green said it best. (Score:2)
I see you driving ’round town
With the girl i love and i’m like,
Forget you!
Oo, oo, ooo
I guess the change in my pocket
Wasn’t enough i’m like,
Forget you!
And forget her too!
I said, if i was richer, i’d still be with ya
Ha, now ain’t that some shhh? (ain’t that some shhh?)
And although there’s pain in my chest
I still wish you the best with a
Forget you!
Oo, oo, ooo
However I agree more with the original lyric.
Re:Cee-Lo Green said it best. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cee-Lo Green said it best. (Score:5, Funny)
We're all adults here..
You must be new here.
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Call him a poopyhead. I double-dog-dare you.
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Hey, he's just trying to get it started in here!
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I had the same thought, so I did a search before posting, and you sir took my idea before I had it! You should work at Google if you don't already, because they do that to me as well.
Never turned that on.... (Score:3)
Just tried to delete and found that I never have turned that feature on. So it seems that people concerned with privacy are not actually affected by this at all....
Of course, I use my Google account for the one project on Google Code I am involved in only, nothing else.
Way ahead of you (Score:2)
Make A Difference Foundation (Score:2)
So... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Of little to no consequence (Score:5, Informative)
From their website (http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54067):
You can remove all Web History from your Google Account at any time. While signed in to your Google Account:
Go to google.com/history.new window
Click Remove all web history.
However, as is common practice in the industry, and as outlined in the Google Privacy Policy, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users.
(emphasis mine)
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It is as I thought. All this means that YOU can't make use of your web history, Google still has it and can do with it as it pleases. Same as with Facebook account "deletions".
Clickety pops! (Score:2)
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Thanks slashdot! (Score:5, Informative)
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Stupid question but if you don't have the service (Score:2)
... will they automatically enable it?
You can delete the service through here, which means you have no history for them to even have.
https://www.google.com/accounts/DeleteService?service=hist [google.com]
Getting tricky (Score:2)
thanks (Score:2)
Today I know why I still have /. in my dailys.
the helpful folks at EFF have posted some simple instructions showing how to delete your web history at Google.
That is exactly what I was looking for. Now if only someone could post a mirror, I'd be a happy camper.
Once again Google screws over paying customers (Score:2)
When Google launched Google+, I could not create a G+ account because - I was stupid enough to give Google money for Google Apps for my company - thus my Google account was ineligible to be used by G+.
Now comes this history thing. I go to Google, but because I am stupid enough to pay Google money for Google Apps for my company, I cannot access "history" to remove it or do anything else.
Google knew who I was already so it's not like my searches are not being tracked. I guess they figure the money I pay the
Google Web History (Score:2)
Maybe I joined Google later than others, but the first thing that I did when I joined Google was turn Web History off so, nothing for me to delete.
However, I agree with other posters that it's unlikely that this would make a difference. I am sure that through a combination of tracking cookies, stored backups, etc. my web history could be recovered with enough effort and resources.
Legality in your country? (Score:2)
I'd say that this makes Googles new policy illegal and they have to leave that country and stop providing services or tr
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Re:What history? (Score:5, Informative)
I believe it was opt-in for a long time, but then it became opt-out for (new?) accounts. The change was announced here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/personalized-search-for-everyone.html [blogspot.com]
Re:What history? (Score:5, Informative)
This does in fact appear to be true. I happen to have two google accounts, as I have two @gmail.com addresses. When I went to the newer one, my entire search history was there as I apparently didn't realize I had to opt out when I set it up. It has now been deleted per the EFF instructions. When I logged in to the older one, it said web history wasn't enabled, and so that account must have been created while web history was still opt-in.
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So, which search provider do you trust?
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I just logged into www.google.com/history and saw my browsing history back to 2007. I understand some of the privacy concerns, but I actually found it interesting to see what webpages I went to 5 years ago. For me, the ability to look back into details of the past that may have left my conscious memory recall seems to outweigh the security concerns. Also, on the www.google.com/history page you can delete individual record items so if there's something IN PARTICULAR that you want to delete... hint, hint, nudge, nudge, say no more.
But who has time to go through 5 years of browser history to delete all of the times they searched for "naked hot girls with donkeys"? If you think you have some particularly sensitive items in your history, the only way to make sure you get them all is to delete it all.
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Funny thing - because of NoScript, many websites break if you disallow google-analytics from running scripts - these sites purposely redirect through Google Analytics in order to track you. It's so bad that NoScript has surrogate scripts that run in place of Google's.
And there's others - I've seen websites break because they load through doubleclick (the main content doesn
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You're either not an English native speaker, being intentionally pedantic, or trolling. I'm not sure which. I'll try to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Idiomatically speaking, in English (and most languages I speak, actually), when you refer to next + day of week, you mean X day, next week. The same holds true for French, Spanish and German (at least, I don't speak other languages), and is a speech pattern that predates the discovery of the Americas. So no, it's not something that's endemic to the America
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in English (and most languages I speak, actually), when you refer to next + day of week, you mean X day, next week.
So if it is Monday, "next Thursday" is 10 days away, and on Fridays "next Thursday" is 4 days away, not 11 !? Never heard that one.
Not to this native speaker (in Oz). I'd usually say "next Thursday" on a Thursday, to mean a week from now.
If you want to talk 10 days ahead, that is "a week from Sunday", or some people would say "Sunday week" for short. I have heard the "next Sunday" usage for that somewhere (immigrants?) but it is unusual and confusing.